272 
llajendralala Mitra— The Yavanas of Sanskrit Writers. [No. 3, 
some undefined country immediately to the west of the Indus ; and lastly, it 
became the name of all western people from Sindh to England. It doubtless 
meant ‘ the casteless people but it was not necessarily an opprobrious term, 
and in a verse, quoted by Colebrooke from the Siddhanta of Varahamihira, the 
Yavanas, although Mlechchhas, are said to be honoured as rishis, because 
they have the science of astronomy amongst them. # Such a term could be 
very appropriately employed by As 'oka to indicate his ally. In the time of 
his grandfather, a part of Arachotia was included in India, and Persia was 
well known by a separate name, so the western country then most probably 
meant Assyria and the country to the west of it, that is Arabia, and possibly 
as far as Syria, or further still, though the authority under notice does not 
justify the assumption. At any rate, I fail to perceive how the passage 
can be adduced, as a proof that Yona meant “ a Greek and a Greek only.” 
The third argument would be of considerable importance if it could be 
shown that the Hindus borrowed any portion of their astronomy directly 
from the Greeks. This, however, cannot be done. The proofs usually adduced 
are founded on mere hypotheses and conjectures, and most of them are not 
to the point. It is undeniable, for instance, that the Hindu signs of the zodiac 
bear a close similitude to those of Greek astronomers, but, it being quite 
uncertain who were the borrowers and who the lenders, it can serve no pur¬ 
pose one way or the other. Supposing we admit Dr. Weber’s conjecture that 
the Hindus got them from the Greeks, still the question will not be advanced 
in the least, for it would not prove that ‘ yona’ meant a Greek. The same may 
be said of the Drekkanas or regents of one-third of a planetary sign,—the 
Decanii of European astrologers,—as also ’of other terms bearing close simi¬ 
litude to Greek words of like import. Dr. Weber notices the following astro¬ 
nomical terms as of Greek origin ; viz. anaphd — ava<prj, dkokera —cuyoKcpws, 
dpoklima — u.Tvoy\ipa, ara —’Apps, asphujit —’Ac/jpoSn-p, ittham (itthasi Dr. 
Dluiu Daji; itlmsi Muir)— IxOvs, kenclra — Kevrpov, kemadruma —xpyy/xaTioytos, 
Teona —Kporos, trikona —Tpiyoovos, kaurpya — aKopmos, kriya — Kptos, jamitra — 
fita pe.Tpov, jituma — Si8vp.os,juka — £,vyov,jyau —Zeus, tdvuri —raupos, taukshika 
— to^otyjs, drikdna drekdna — Seieavos, durudhard —Sopix^opia, dus'chikya — 
rv)(LKov, dyunam dyutam — Svtov, panaphard — l7rava<popa, pathena —7ia pOevos, 
mesurana — pecrovpavrjpa, liptdt —Ae-7rrp, rilipha rishphd —pi^-p, ley a — \€o)v,vesi 
— (paens, sunapha —trwa^, harija —opt^toj/, hihuka — viroyciov, himna (perhaps 
himra f)—’Epp/ps, heli —‘HAiog, liridroga —fSpoyoos, hora — wpa. Some of these, 
however, are formed with well known and ancient Sanskrit roots, and retain 
the meanings which they originally had and still have as common terms of the 
language, and they can no more be adduced as proofs of the Hindus having 
* TjErer fejcj i 
T%5f: l| 
CV ^ 
Colebrooke’s Essays, II. p. 410. 
